JPH055328B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

This invention relates to a microscope, and in particular, magnification selection,
This invention relates to a microscope that can automatically perform focusing, etc.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, well-known microscopes require detailed adjustment work and skill in order to observe an object to be observed with a clear image. For this reason, it is difficult to observe objects to be observed quickly and in large quantities in the industrial production process, and the emergence of a microscope that automatically performs the process from magnification selection to focusing has been awaited. Here, if you want to automate the adjustment work of the microscope,
In particular, when focusing is automated, there is a problem in that the automatic focusing mechanism is not suitable for use in a microscope unless it is small and lightweight. For example, if a DC servo mechanism is used as the automatic focusing drive mechanism for the stage on which the object to be observed is placed, it is large and requires a brake device to maintain the stationary position, which requires a smaller size and lighter weight. Contrary to. Furthermore, if a structure is adopted in which the stage is driven by a stepping motor, the stepping motor must be connected to the drive shaft of the stage through a reducer in order to perform minute precision positioning. Not necessarily,
As the device becomes larger, there is a problem of backlash, and there is also the problem of significant heat generation during operation in order to secure braking torque. Furthermore, the reduction ratio of the reduction gear must be set to 1/70 or more, and it is difficult to obtain such a reduction ratio. Furthermore, although it is possible to complete the automatic focus adjustment of the objective lens in about a few seconds using conventionally known means, it takes a lot of time to rotate the revolver to select the objective lens as a preparatory work. In short, if this requires confirmation work to check the relationship between the objective lens and the magnification, an additional work time of 30 seconds or more is required. This reduces the effectiveness of the autofocus device. Furthermore, when performing automatic focus adjustment of the objective lens, the time and accuracy of movement of the stage to reach the focal position of the objective lens pose problems. That is, in order to shorten the setup time of the microscope, it is desirable to move the stage at high speed, but when moving at high speed, it is difficult to keep the stage stationary at the optimal position, causing hunting, etc. This is all the more problematic because the movement stroke of the stage is generally relatively small in microscopes. On the other hand, if the stage is moved at a low speed, it becomes difficult to quickly set up the microscope. In addition, when automatically focusing an objective lens, the brightness of the object to be observed needs to be at least a certain amount due to the sensitivity characteristics of the focus detector, and this brightness depends on the magnification of the objective lens selected. Therefore, unless it is possible to automatically adjust the brightness of the object to be observed, the effectiveness of the automatic focus adjustment mechanism will be diminished. In contrast to the above, conventional methods such as JP-A-59-177508
There is a microscope equipped with an automatic focusing device as described in the publication. This allows you to input the data on the magnification and type of the objective lens in advance, and then automatically control the illumination optical system, automatic focusing device, etc. using the drive control unit based on the data and type of the selected objective lens. This is what I did. However, this microscope detects the selected objective lens and then controls the related optical system using a control device, which is based on the premise that many steps are required to select the objective lens, such as rotating the revolver. This is time consuming, and furthermore, confirmation work to check the magnification relationship of the objective lenses is also required at some point in the process, which takes a lot of work time and reduces the effectiveness of the automatic focusing device. Regarding automatic focusing devices, for example,
There is a microscope focusing device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 59-182409. The feature of this microscope's focusing device is that the pulse motor rotates at high speed when the objective lens magnification is low, and slows down near the in-focus position to speed up the focusing work when the objective lens magnification is low. However, since the speed is switched to a low speed near the in-focus position, there is a possibility that a switching delay may occur and hunting may occur. Also, in the case of this microscope, the related optical system is controlled based on the magnification of the objective lens already on the optical path, and the speed of the pulse motor of the focusing device is also controlled manually based on the detected magnification of the objective lens. This requires a lot of work time.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and is capable of automatically and quickly adjusting the magnification of the objective lens, automatically adjusting the focus of the stage for the selected objective lens, and automatically and quickly setting the brightness of the viewing object. The purpose is to provide a microscope that enables In addition, this invention allows selection and setting of objective lenses to be performed in a short time when the microscope is set to automatic focus adjustment.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a microscope that allows quick setting. In addition, when the microscope is set to automatic focus adjustment, the present invention provides a light and small moving device for the stage, which moves the stage with high precision in a short period of time without causing hunting. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a microscope that can perform the following tasks. A further object of the present invention is to provide a microscope that automatically switches the brightness of an object to be observed to an optimum level in accordance with the magnification selection setting of an objective lens.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention includes a stage on which an object to be observed is placed, a light source for illuminating the object to be observed, and a plurality of objective lenses disposed in a revolver, and includes a stage for placing an object to be observed, a light source for illuminating the object to be observed, and a plurality of objective lenses disposed in a revolver. and an enlarging optical system for receiving at least one of the transmitted light and forming an enlarged image, and an observation optical system including an eyepiece and for observing the image formed by the enlarging optical system; A drive mechanism for rotating the revolver,
a magnification selection control circuit for automatically aligning the selected objective lens with the optical axis of the enlarging optical system by driving the revolver by the drive mechanism; , a focus detector for identifying the magnified imaging state of the object to be observed, and a focal depth near range set outside the focal depth corresponding to the selected objective lens based on the output signal of the focus detector. The drive mechanism is operated at high speed until it enters the focus position, and then switches to a steady speed after entering the focal depth near region, and the steady speed is made faster as the magnification of the objective lens becomes smaller. an automatic focus adjustment device comprising: a stage moving device for driving the stage along the lens optical axis; and adjusting the amount of light emitted by the light source based on a preset light amount setting value of the selected objective lens. A light amount adjustment device that adjusts according to the magnification; based on the magnification selection signal of the objective lens inputted prior to observation;
The above object is achieved by providing an operation console for automatically operating the magnification selection device, the automatic focus adjustment device, and the light amount adjustment device according to a predetermined procedure. Further, the present invention includes a stepper motor directly connected to the document table, and a step of moving the position of a stable point of a static torque curve of the stepping motor by minute angles. The above object is achieved by comprising an excitation switching device that changes stepwise the magnitude of each phase current of a plurality of excitation phases for each input pulse to subdivide the step angle. . Further, the present invention provides the stepping motor,
A four-phase basic structure with 1-2 phase excitation is used, and the excitation switching device switches the excitation current stepwise so that the first and second phases of the stepping motor have a substantially sinusoidal waveform locus with a 90° phase shift. The above object is achieved by configuring as follows. Further, in the present invention, the magnification selection device includes a plurality of position sensors attached to the stationary side of the revolver in correspondence with the number of objective lenses disposed on the revolver, and a plurality of position sensors attached to the rotating side of the revolver. two sensed objects that are attached and can be simultaneously detected by two of the position sensors, and the shortest rotation from the output signal of the position detection sensor to the objective lens of the current objective lens and supported magnification; The above object is achieved by configuring the rotation direction specifying circuit for specifying the direction.

[Operation] In this invention, after issuing a command to select one of a plurality of objective lenses, the selected objective lens is set on the optical axis, and the stage is set to the selected objective lens. Setting the focus position and adjusting the brightness of the object to be observed in accordance with the magnification of the selected objective lens are automatically, quickly, and accurately performed. Further, in the present invention, the stage moving device for moving the stage to the focal position of the objective lens moves the stage until it enters a depth of focus area set outside the depth of focus corresponding to the selected objective lens. The stage is moved at high speed during this period, and at a steady speed after entering the near depth of focus area.In other words, the moving speed is reduced from the near depth of focus area before entering the depth of focus to ensure that , and automatic focusing is performed without causing hunting. Further, in the present invention, the document stage is directly driven by a stepping motor that directly drives it with finely divided step angles, so that focusing can be performed accurately and quickly. Further, in the present invention, the stepping motor is configured such that the excitation current thereof is switched stepwise to have a substantially sinusoidal locus in which the first phase and the second phase of the stepping motor are shifted by 90 degrees, thereby improving accuracy. A high step rotation can be obtained. Further, in this invention, the magnification selection device comprises:
When the objective lens selection command signal is input, the revolver is rotated in the shortest rotation direction when setting the selected objective lens, thereby shortening the time for selecting and setting the objective lens.

【Example】

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a stage 1 on which an object to be observed (not shown) is placed;
2, and a light source 14 for illuminating the object to be observed.
a magnifying optical system that receives at least one of reflected light and transmitted light from the object to be observed and forms an enlarged image; and an eyepiece lens 22. , a viewing optical system for viewing the image formed by the magnifying optical system; a driving mechanism 26 for rotating the revolver 16; and a viewing optical system for viewing the image formed by the magnifying optical system; a magnification selection control circuit 28 for automatically aligning the optical axis of the magnifying optical system;
a magnification selection device 30 comprising: a focus detector 32 facing the observation optical system and for identifying an enlarged image formation state of the object to be observed; an automatic focus adjustment device 36 including a stage moving device 34 that drives the stage 12 along the lens optical axis by a drive mechanism 34A to the focal position of the objective lens 18; a preset light amount setting value; a light amount adjustment device 38 that adjusts the amount of light emitted from the light source 14 based on; a predetermined control of the magnification selection device 30, the automatic focus adjustment device 36, and the light amount adjustment device 38 based on a magnification selection signal input and commanded prior to observation; The system is equipped with an operation console 40 for automatically operating the system according to the procedure. The document table moving device 34 uses a stepping motor 42 directly connected to the document table 12, and moves the stable point of the static torque curve of the stepping motor 42 step by step by minute angles to adjust the step angle. The excitation switching device 44 changes stepwise the magnitude of each phase current of a plurality of excitation phases for subdividing the excitation phase for each input pulse. Further, the stepping motor 42 has a four-phase basic structure with 1-2 phase excitation, and the excitation switching device 4
4 is configured to switch the excitation current stepwise so that the first and second phases of the stepping motor 42 have a substantially sinusoidal locus with a phase shift of 90 degrees. As shown in FIG. 4, the magnification selection device 30 includes position sensors 46A attached to the stationary side of the revolver 16 in correspondence with the number of four objective lenses 18 disposed on the revolver 16. ~46D
, two detected objects 48 and 50 that are attached to the rotating side of the revolver 16 and can be simultaneously detected by two of the position sensors 46A to 46D, and the output signals of the position detection sensors 46A to 46D. It includes a rotation direction identification circuit (see FIG. 5) 28A that recognizes the current objective lens and specifies the shortest rotation direction to the objective lens of the supported magnification. Reference numeral 62 in FIG. 4 is a click mechanism, and 64 is engaged with the click mechanism 62, so that it is connected to the revolver 16.
The same number of recesses as the objective lens 18 and corresponding recesses are shown. Position detector 45 in the magnification selection device 30
The detected objects 48 and 50 are magnets, and
The position sensors 46A to 46D are Hall ICs. The detected objects 48 and 50, which are magnets, are slightly shifted from the mounting interval of the position sensors 46A to 46D, and the click mechanism 62 is located in the recess 6.
4, the two position sensors are able to detect both the objects 48 and 50. The position of the objective lens 18 is determined by the position detector 45, as shown in FIG. 5, when any two of the position sensors 46A to 46D detect the objects 48 and 50. It is starting to be done. That is, the two position sensors are connected to the detected objects 48 and 50.
, the current position can be determined by the logical product. The magnification selection control circuit 28 receives the output signal of the position detector 45 and the magnification selection command signal from the magnification setting device 82 provided on the operation console 40, and also controls the revolver based on these signals. From the current position of 16, the magnification setting device 8
A rotational direction specifying circuit 28A that outputs a signal indicating the rotational direction of the shortest distance to the position of the objective lens 18 specified by 2, and this rotational direction specifying circuit 28A.
A memory 28B that stores the output signal of , a memory 28C that stores the selection setting signal from the magnification setting device 82, and an output signal from the memory 28C and an output signal from the position detector 45 are compared, A stop judgment circuit 28D outputs a stop signal when the two match, and the drive mechanism 26 is driven by the output signal of the memory 28B, and when the stop signal from the stop judgment circuit 28D is input, the drive mechanism 26 is driven. It also includes a drive circuit 28E for stopping the mechanism 26. Here, the drive mechanism 26, position detector 45, and automatic focus adjustment device 36 in the magnification selection device 30
a focus detector 32, a stage moving device 34,
The light source 14 is provided on the microscope main body 10A side. Further, the magnification selection device 30, the automatic focus adjustment device 36 other than the portion provided in the microscope 10A, and the light amount adjustment device 38 are provided in a control box 10B separate from the microscope main body 10A. . The microscope main body 10A further includes a stage 12.
An X-direction motor 66, a Y-direction motor 68, and a stage 12 for driving the
Position detector 7 for detecting the position in the XY direction of
0 is provided. In addition to the above, the control box 10B is also provided with an XY drive device 72 for the stage 12. This XY drive device 72 is connected to a central processing unit 74.
, a memory 76, the X-direction motor 66 and the Y-direction motor 66;
It has an X-direction drive circuit 78 and a Y-direction drive circuit 80 for driving and controlling the direction motor 68. Drive mechanism 3 in the automatic focus adjustment device 36
4A includes a stepping motor 42 and an excitation switching device 44 as described above, and this excitation switching device 44 includes an oscillator 44A for generating a pulse signal and an oscillator 44, as shown in FIG.
Ring counter 44B that counts the pulse train output from A and creates 8-bit data that returns to zero at 256.
and a ROM 4 for outputting sin and cos values corresponding to the output signal from the ring counter 44B.
4C and the output signal from this ROM44C to D/
It is composed of a D/A converter 44D for outputting an A-converted excitation signal to a drive circuit 44G. Further, the automatic focus adjustment device 36 receives a focus detection signal from the focus detector 32 via an interface 36A, and determines how much deviation this input signal has with respect to the focus position, that is,
A video signal evaluation section 36B that detects the sharpness of the image of the object to be observed, an output signal of this video signal evaluation section 36B, and a setting command signal from the magnification setting device 82 on the console 40 are transmitted to the interface 3.
6C, a central processing unit 36E receives a signal from the memory 36D, and drives the excitation switching device 44 of the drive mechanism 34A;
It is equipped with Here, a limit switch 34B is provided at the upper and lower limit positions of the table moving device 34, and a signal is output by the table 12 at the upper or lower limit position, and this signal is sent to the interface. 36G to the central processing unit 36E. As shown in FIG. 7, the central processing unit 36E can cause the stepping motor 42 to move at high speed by outputting a high-speed feed pulse signal from an oscillator in the excitation switching device 44 for the stepping motor 42. Based on the focal depth of the objective lens 18 selected by the high-speed drive command device 37A and the magnification setting device 32, a signal is output in units of a predetermined number of pulse signals smaller than the high-speed feed pulse signal. Fixed amount drive command device 3
7B and the video signal evaluation section 36B,
When it is detected from the detection output signal of the focus detector 32 that the focal depth range of the selected objective lens 18 is approached, the high-speed drive command device 37A is switched to the quantitative drive command device 37B,
In addition, the signal input from the focus detector 32 via the video signal evaluation unit 36B is compared with the depth of focus of the selected objective lens 18 stored in advance in the memory 36D for each unit pulse drive, and the video signal is The quantitative drive command device 37 until the signal from the evaluation section 36B reaches within the range of the depth of focus.
A control circuit 37C for repeatedly operating B;
It is equipped with Here, the stepping motor 42 in the drive mechanism 34A is 1-2 phase excitation, rotates 0.9 degrees per pulse, and has one cycle of 8 pulses, or 7.2 degrees, like a general stepping motor. The excitation switching device 44 is configured to perform stepwise excitation such that the 7.2° is divided into 256 equal parts and the excitation is advanced by 0.028° per pulse. Therefore, if the pitch of the drive shaft of the stage moving device 34 is 2.4 mm, the amount of movement of the stage 12 is 1.
2.4×0.028°/360°≒0.19 μm per pulse. Here, the oscillator 44A of the excitation switching device 44 oscillates based on the signals output from the high-speed drive command device 37A and the quantitative drive command device 37B.
The number of pulses per unit is based on the depth of focus corresponding to the magnification of the objective lens 18, which is stored in advance in the memory 36D, as shown in FIG. That is, when the depth of focus of the selected objective lens 18 is deep, the number of pulse signals per unit output based on the command from the quantitative drive command device 37B is large, and when the depth of focus is shallow, the number of pulse signals is small. . In addition, the pulse signal for high-speed feeding based on the signal from the high-speed drive command device 37A is
The moving distance of the stage 12 per second is 22000P/sec, ie, 4.18 mm/sec. The relationship between the depth of focus and the number of unit pulses is as follows:
As shown in the figure, the objective lens 18 has the feed amount of the stage 12 selected by the number n of pulses per unit.
depth of focus. Here, the number of pulses per unit corresponding to the depth of focus and the number of pulses per unit in high-speed feed can be adjusted to increase or decrease. Further, the control circuit 37C is configured to output a command signal for a transient speed of 2500 P/sec to the excitation switching device 44 from the start to high-speed drive and when switching to constant drive after high-speed drive ends. ing. The light amount adjusting device 38 stores the setting command signal from the light amount setting device 84 of the operation console 40, and also has a memory for storing the setting command signal from the enlargement magnification setting device 82, which is input via the decoder 38A. 38D, and a light source lighting control device 38C that controls lighting of the light source 14 based on the output signal of the memory 38B. Further, the light source 14 includes lamps 14A and 14B.
and a reflected light source 14C that illuminates the object to be observed on the stage with the light emitted from the lamp 14A from above.
It is configured to include a transmitted light source 14D that illuminates the object to be observed on the stage 12 from below with light emitted from the lamp 14B. The memory 38B stores in advance the light amount of the lamps 14A and 14B corresponding to each magnification of the objective lens 18, and stores the light amount based on a command signal from a light amount setting device 84 provided on the console 40. Based on a selection setting signal from the magnification setting device 82, which is configured to be changeable and input via the decoder 38A, the light source lighting control device sends a light amount signal corresponding to the selected magnification of the objective lens. It is designed to output to 38C. This light source lighting control device 38C has a memory 38B.
lamp 14A and lamp 1 based on the signal from
The amount of light of 4B is controlled. Here, switching between the lamps 14A and 14B, that is, switching between reflected illumination and transmitted illumination, is manually performed from the outside. Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained. First, after setting an object on the stage 12 of the microscope 10, a desired magnification is selected using the magnification setting device 82 on the console 40. The magnification setting device 82 outputs a magnification selection setting command signal to the magnification selection control circuit 28, automatic focus adjustment device 36, light amount adjustment device 38, and XY drive device 72, respectively. The rotation direction specifying circuit 28A of the magnification selection control circuit 28 compares the input selection setting command signal with the magnification of the objective lens 18 at the current position input from the position detector 45, and determines the commanded magnification. The rotation direction with the shortest distance to the objective lens 18 is selected and outputted to the drive circuit 28E via the memory 28B. On the other hand, the stop judgment circuit 28D compares the selection setting command signal from the magnification setting device 82 inputted via the memory 28C with the current position signal inputted from the position detector 45, and determines whether the two match. In other words, when the objective lens 18 with the desired magnification coincides with the optical axis of the observation optical system, a stop signal is sent to the drive circuit 2.
Output to 8E. The drive circuit 28E uses the rotation direction identification circuit 2 until a stop signal is output from the stop judgment circuit 28D.
The drive mechanism 26 is rotated based on a rotational direction command signal inputted via the drive unit 8A and the memory 28B. Here, the current position of the objective lens 18 is determined when the two position sensors 46A and 46D detect the detected objects 48 and 50, which are magnets, with the click mechanism 62 falling into the recess 64 as shown in FIG. Detection is performed by logical product of detection signals. Further, the revolver 16 is rotated by the drive mechanism 26, and two position sensors corresponding to the designated position are placed a/2 in front of the designated position to detect the detected object 48,
50 is detected, but the deviation of a/2 in this case is
It should match the amount of deviation of the stop position caused by the influence of inertia, etc. Further, after the drive mechanism 26 is stopped, the position sensor 46
The stop position is confirmed by the signal from one of A to 46D, and if only that one position sensor detects the detected object 48 or 50, check the position based on the relationship with the two position sensors corresponding to the specified position. The direction in which the error is occurring can be determined and corrected. In addition, a detected object 48 consisting of two magnets,
50, the width of the detection target can be easily adjusted. The selection setting command signal for the objective lens 18 from the magnification setting device 82 is sent to the central processing device 36E in the automatic focus adjustment device 36 via the interface 36.
It is input via C. This central processing unit 36E has a memory 36D in advance.
Based on the information stored in , the number n of pulses for quantitative driving corresponding to the given magnification is selected. Further, the image signal obtained from the focus detector 32 is input to the video signal evaluation section 36B via the interface 36A.
outputs a signal corresponding to the distance to the focal position of the stage 12 to the central processing unit 36E. Based on this signal, the central processing unit 36E
A drive signal is output to the drive section 36F. That is, the control circuit 37 does not operate until the depth of focus reaches the near depth of focus range (see FIG. 8) set outside the depth of focus corresponding to the magnification of the selected objective lens 18.
C, the high-speed drive command device 37A outputs a signal for high-speed drive, and drives the drive mechanism 4A of the stage moving device 34 via the drive section 36F. The signal output from the drive unit 36F is transmitted to the oscillator 44A of the excitation switching device 44 in the drive mechanism 34A.
Then, a pulse signal for high-speed driving, that is, a signal of 22000 P/sec shown in FIG. 8 is output. When the signal from the video signal evaluation unit 36B becomes a signal indicating that the stage 10 has reached the near depth of focus region, the control circuit 37C outputs a signal to the drive unit 36F as shown in FIG. is switched from the high-speed drive command device 37A to the quantitative drive command device 3B. As shown in FIG. 8, this quantitative drive command device 37B uses an oscillator 44A to output a unit pulse n corresponding to the magnification of the selected objective lens 18.
Outputs a command signal to. Therefore, in response to the output from the quantitative drive command device 37B, for example, if the selected magnification is 5 times, the stepping motor 42 intermittently outputs pulses of unit pulse n=50 as shown in FIG. Output. This unit pulse n is 9.5 μm, which is smaller than the depth of focus (8 μm when the magnification is 5 times), so the feed amount of the stage 12 corresponding to this number of pulses is 9.5 μm. Therefore, it will not go too far to the other side of the depth of focus. The central processing unit 36E is a quantitative drive command device 37.
The signal from the video signal evaluation unit 36B is captured via the video signal evaluation unit 36B for each oscillation of the unit pulse n, and
It is determined whether or not the depth of focus is within the range of the depth of focus, and the above process is repeated until the depth of focus is within the range of the depth of focus, and the stepping motor 42 is driven. Here, the automatic focus adjustment device 36 immediately moves from the current position of the stage 12 to the focal position of the objective lens 18 after the objective lens 18 is selected and set by the magnification setting device 82. Loading table 1
2, which drives the
For example, the stage 12 may be once driven to the upper limit or the lower limit, the limit switch 34B is turned on, and the stage 12 is driven to a predetermined focal position based on the ON signal of the limit switch 34B. Here, the excitation switching device 44 of the stepping motor 42 is configured to move the stable point position of the stepping motor 2 step by step by minute angles to subdivide the step angle by selecting a plurality of corresponding excitation phases. Since the magnitude of each phase current is changed stepwise for each input pulse, the drive mechanism 34A directly connected to the stepping motor 42 accurately drives the stage 12 by minute amounts. be able to. The selection setting command signal for the objective lens 18 output by the magnification setting device 82 is sent to the memory 38B of the light amount adjustment device 38 via the decoder 38A.
is input. This memory 38B stores the selected objective lens 1.
The amount of light corresponding to the magnification of 8 is stored in advance,
This is output to the light source lighting control device 38C, and the light source lighting control device 38C adjusts the light amount of the lamps 14A and 14B based on the instructed light amount signal. Further, the output signal of the central processing unit 36E in the automatic focus adjustment device 36 is input to the light amount setting device 84 via the interface 36C, and for example, a signal from the video signal evaluation section 36B indicates that the amount of light is excessive or the amount of light is too high. If the amount of light is too low, an adjustment signal for decreasing or increasing the amount of light is output to the memory 38B. Therefore, the light amount setting device 34 is operated to change the record in the memory 338B by a signal from the automatic focus adjustment device 36 or an operator adjustment. Therefore, in the above embodiment, when a magnification setting device 82 provided on the console 40 issues a command to select and set a magnification, the objective lens 18 is selected and set based on the command signal, and the object is The stand 12 automatically sets the object to be observed to the focal position of the objective lens 18, and furthermore, the light amount of the light source 14 is automatically set in accordance with the set magnification. Furthermore, when setting the selection of the objective lens 18, the revolver 16 is rotationally driven from the objective lens of the magnification set before setting to the position of the objective lens selected in the shortest time. Furthermore, the automatic focus adjustment device 36 allows the object to be observed to be moved to the focal position at high speed and accurately without causing any hunting of the stage 12. Therefore, as a whole system, the entire microscope 10 can be set efficiently and accurately in a short time. Here, the control box provided in the control box 10B is
The XY drive device 72 operates based on a command signal from an automatic observation setting device 86 provided on the operation console 40.
The stage 12 is driven in the XY directions to move it to a predetermined position. That is, the central processing unit 74 of the XY drive device 72
is the position detector 7 based on the given command signal.
The XY direction drive circuit 7
8 and Y-direction driving direction 80, an X-direction motor 66 and a Y-direction motor 68, each of which is a stepping motor, are driven. The memory 76 in the XY drive device 72 stores the magnification selection setting command signal from the enlargement magnification setting device 82 and outputs the contents to the central processing unit 74. In the above embodiment, the magnification of the objective lens 18 is selectively set using the magnification setting device 82 provided on the operation console 40. Setting device 8
6, and by operating this, the position of the stage in the X and Y directions and the magnification setting selection of the objective lens 18 can be performed fully automatically. That is, the automatic observation setting device 86 is
The microscope 10 is fully automatically set by not only setting the position in the XY directions but also setting the magnification selection. Further, in the above embodiment, the position sensors 46A to 46D of the magnification selection device 30 are constructed from Hall ICs, and the detected objects 48 and 50 are constructed from magnets, but the present invention is not limited to this. If necessary, any device that can detect the position of the objective lens 18 in the revolver 16 may be used. Further, the magnification selection control circuit 28 selects the objective selected by the selection setting command signal based on the detection signal of the position detector 45 which includes the position sensors 46A to 46D and the detected objects 48 and 50. It is sufficient if the shortest rotation direction of the lens 18 can be selected and the drive mechanism 26 can be driven accordingly. Further, the automatic focus adjustment device 36 includes a video signal evaluation section 36B, and the video signal evaluation section 36
Although the signal from the focus detector 32 is evaluated by B and the focus can be automatically detected from the sharpness of the image, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited to this. The device 36 may be any device that can detect whether or not the stage 12 is located within the depth of focus range of the selected objective lens 18 and the range close to the depth of focus.

【Effect of the invention】

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has an excellent effect in that automatic settings of the microscope can be performed efficiently and accurately in a short time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the microscope according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control circuit in the same embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a position detection diagram in the same embodiment. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the output signal of the position sensor of the same position detector and the rotation angle of the revolver, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the drive mechanism of the stage moving device in the above embodiment. 7 is a block diagram showing the central processing unit in the automatic focus adjustment device of the same embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a control process of the stage drive mechanism by the central processing unit of the automatic focus adjustment device in the same embodiment. FIG. 10...Microscope, 10A...Microscope body, 12
...Product stand, 14...Light source, 16...Revolver,
18... Objective lens, 20... Magnifying optical system, 22
...Eyepiece, 24...Observation optical system meter, 26...
...Drive mechanism, 28...Magnification selection control circuit, 30...
...Magnification selection device, 32... Focus detector, 34...
Stage moving device, 34A... Drive mechanism, 36...
Automatic focus adjustment device, 38...Light amount adjustment device, 40
...Operation console, 42...Stepping motor, 44
...Excitation switching device, 45...Position detector, 46A
~46D...Position sensor, 48, 50...Detected object, 60...Rotation direction identification circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Includes a stage for placing an object to be observed, a light source for illuminating the object to be observed, and a plurality of objective lenses disposed in a revolver, A microscope comprising: an enlarging optical system for receiving at least one of reflected light and transmitted light and forming an enlarged image; and an observation optical system including an eyepiece and for observing the image formed by the enlarging optical system. comprising: a drive mechanism for rotating the revolver; and a magnification selection control circuit for automatically aligning the selected objective lens with the optical axis of the magnifying optical system by driving the revolver using the drive mechanism. a magnification selection device; a focus detector facing the observation optical system and for identifying an enlarged image formation state of the object to be observed; a magnification selection device that corresponds to the selected objective lens based on an output signal of the focus detector; The speed is high until entering the near depth of focus range set outside the depth of focus, and after entering the near range of focus depth, the speed is switched to steady speed, and
The steady speed is increased as the magnification of the objective lens is small, and the stage moving device drives the stage along the optical axis of the lens by a drive mechanism to the focal position. and; a light amount adjustment device that adjusts the amount of light emitted from the light source in accordance with the magnification of the selected objective lens based on a preset light amount setting value; , an operation console for automatically operating the magnification selection device, the automatic focus adjustment device, and the light amount adjustment device according to a predetermined procedure. 2. The document table moving device has a stepping motor directly connected to the document table, and moves the stable point position of the static torque curve of the stepping motor step by step by minute angles to subdivide the step angle. 2. The microscope according to claim 1, further comprising an excitation switching device that changes stepwise the magnitude of each phase current of a plurality of excitation phases for each input pulse. 3. The stepping motor has a four-phase basic structure with 1-2 phase excitation, and the excitation switching device has a substantially sinusoidal locus with a 90° phase shift between the first and second phases of the stepping motor. 3. The microscope according to claim 2, wherein the excitation current is preferably switched stepwise. 4. The magnification selection device includes a plurality of position sensors attached to the stationary side of the revolver in correspondence with the number of objective lenses disposed on the revolver;
Two detected objects are attached to the rotating side of the revolver and can be simultaneously detected by two of the position sensors, and the current objective lens is recognized from the output signal of the position detection sensor and the supported magnification is determined. 3. The microscope according to claim 1, 2, or 3, further comprising a rotation direction specifying circuit for specifying the shortest rotation direction to the objective lens.